Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Because I FELT like it

The return of the felt, after a 15 year hiatus, has come back with a vengence...I am loving felting again and thankfully I hadn't sold all my felting wools, or washboard or mats, as I had continued to make boas over the years, but now I want to make everything...I love being obsessed with fibery goodies...and even though my back is l5 years older it seems to be able to handle this new work....here are are photos...

These need to be clicked on for a better view, but these are two partial boas, with long long wensleydale locks from England, and they are narrow with locks on either end...and some silks embedded in the main black scarf...The brown one is natural locks and one side is covered in the locks and it is felted with half breed and merino base with silk gauze embedded in between the layers to keep it from stretching out...I always put the silk in to stabilize the length....The top two are a wrap that looks quite elegant on, but doesn't really photograph well, do to well, the photographer, that would be me, and because I don't have an extra body here at the moment...but you get the picture....

and the rocks, well just couldn't resist, living on an island with an incredible amount of rocks, some just called to have felt coats put on them, so there they are, snug in their felts....they are so handleable....I always thought painting rocks was sacrilege, but apparently I don't think felting over them is the same thing...so there we have felted rocks....and olives,well it was a natural evolution from rocks apparently lol....

and last but not least the Vessel.....well thanks to nicole clasheen, an irish felter who is so generous of spirit she guided me through her technique, we have the vessel. The "all day vessel" as I like to call it, as it practically took me all day to get it stiff enough to stand on its own, but it is beautiful to behold, and I haven't even embellished it yet, so I am thrilled....next I am on to some nuno felting...with the help of nicole, and elizabeth of StudioFelter, in Australia, so my felting return is being fostered internationally...so so lucky...and of course there has been the usually natural dyeing.

More Polypores are soaking as we speak, and I have the bottom half of the fridge filled with premordanted fibre ready to dye at any moment. Have been going out a few hours daily, and the rains have finally shown up here, and we have even eater some white chanterelles, and saw my first Lobster mushroom just yesterday, so we are slow here compared to other places at this time of the year but it is an island, which is virtually a rock, so the rains take awhile to penetrate and get the mycelium running... so I have much to look forward too. Felting with mushroom dyed organic merino is the next venture, just after doing two xmas shows....so life is good, dh is semi retired and loving mushrooming and mossing and the sky is clear today...so back to felting...

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About Me

I live on an island off the west coast of Canada, and have been an avid fibre artist for the past thirty years...I spin, dye and play with all kinds of fibres and sell yarns for others to play with...I recently returned to natural dyeing after a short 25 year hiatus into acid dyes, and now am found most days in the woods, gathering with dh, and finding wonderful dye fungi and lichen...could life be more fun?